Jameis Winston's Inconsistent Play a Concern Heading into Regular Season

This week was the NFL preseason's dress rehearsal, when we see the closest thing to regular-season action before the real thing hits in September. It wasn't pretty for Jameis Winston and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost 31-7 on Saturday.

What happened? Just a few days ago we were singing Winston's praises after a big win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Life comes at you fast, though, especially when you're on the quarterback learning curve at the NFL level.

The Good

Winston had a pretty rough go in his first preseason outing too. The difference in Week 1, though, was his ability to bounce back from a bad start to finish strong.

His second preseason game was an extension of said bounce-back: He completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 90 yards and scored his second rushing touchdown of the preseason.

Against the Cleveland Browns, though, there was no gut check, no rebound. Only a handful of good plays that qualified as such solely because they could be compared to the rest of his night.

NFL GamePass

These are your garden-variety completions any NFL quarterback should be able to make. Outside of a nice five-yard scramble, that was just about all she wrote for Winston.

The Bad

There wasn't much to like about Winston's performance, but it wasn't all his fault.

Tampa Bay's offensive line looked like a wet paper towel in the face of a tornado, as it was unable to withstand the Cleveland pass rush for much of the night. 

NFL GamePass

Not only did Winston get sacked four times—though one of those was a coverage sack—but the big uglies up front had a heck of a time giving their quarterback enough time to throw the ball most of the night. 

Cleveland roughed up Winston to the point where he was limping after his last series in the game. He was pressured on nearly half his dropbacks. To put that into perspective, Russell Wilson was the most-pressured quarterback last season at a rate of 46 percent, according to Pro Football Focus.

Why are we focusing on the offensive line? Because it's going to be a major problem for Winston if it doesn't improve. The rookie will have a hard enough time acclimating to the NFL without running for his life half the time.

Beyond his line, though, Winston showed other areas where he needs some serious work. 

NFL GamePass

There were a couple of instances in which Winston locked on to receiver Vincent Jackson. Cleveland's defense keyed on those and nearly made the No. 1 overall pick pay. At other times, Winston simply made bad throws into coverage.

Perhaps he was rattled.

Staring his receivers down, hanging out in the pocket too long, throwing into double coverage—these are things that Winston will correct over time. But he managed to squeeze all that into two-plus quarters of play, and it resulted in an ugly statistical output.

The Ugly

"

Jameis Winston’s line for the night: 6-15/90y; 0TD, 1INT; 4sacks. Rtg: 32.6. #Bucs

— Josina Anderson (@JosinaAnderson) August 30, 2015"

Yuck. Yet it could have been much worse.

True, he was under duress for much of the night, but Winston put up some ugly throws after some bad decisions. Eventually, the reaper came calling.

NFL GamePass

NFL GamePass

Winston could have been picked off three or four times.

Against the Browns, the former Florida State star simply failed under fire. Unlike some of his contemporaries, though, Winston faced anything but a vanilla defense—Cleveland head coach Mike Pettine let the dogs loose against the rookie, and he wilted.

Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith attributed his quarterback's struggles in part to a terrible team effort, per Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times.

"I like what he has done in the games," Smith said. "But [Saturday] he was a part of a bad effort that we had as a football team.

"You just [have to] realize that with young players, you're going to make some mistakes."

Fortunately, this is only the preseason. Unfortunately, the season looms. 

Was this a portent of doom for Tampa Bay or just part of the development process? Most likely the latter, though hardly anyone is expecting a huge turnaround by the NFC South cellar-dweller.

Follow @AlexMiglio